My Protector
by thenerdiestprincess
Summary: Ever since Amon captured her family, Jinora's been having nightmares. She only feels safe when a certain earthbender promises to protect her.


"Amon? How are...Your boat blew up! You can't be alive!" Jinora yelled at the figure walking towards her with its arms outstretched.

Her exclamation made Amon pause. "Oh, Jinora. You can't kill an idea," the man under the mask said, cackling all the while. Suddenly, Jinora was back up on that stage, bound and gagged. Amon touched her forehead with one finger, and she gasped...

And then she was flying away on her glider. _Wait, didn't Amon take my bending away?_ Jinora thought. As soon as the question crossed her mind, she began falling, the earth coming closer and closer to her face...

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Jinora yelled, sitting bolt upright in bed. She was in her own room even though her father had said that she could sleep in her parents bed. Jinora wanted to be able to have her mother and father there to comfort her when she woke up screaming, but she knew that Rohan was keeping them awake at all hours of the night, and she didn't want to contribute to their already sleep-deprived state.

Jinora jumped when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. Maybe her mother had heard her startled shriek when fetching a new diaper for Rohan or something. Still, Jinora tightly gripped her staff before softly whispering, "Come in."

"Jinora? I though I heard yelling. Just wanted to make sure you were okay." It was Bolin, and he was trying to hide a sandwich behind his back. "Um, I was just taking a walk." Jinora giggled in spite of herself. He had obviously just raided the kitchen, which was now devoid of Pema's watchful eye.

Bolin shuffled his feet. "Well, if you're alright, I guess I'll go." He went to turn around, still absurdly trying to hide the sandwich.

"No!" Jinora nearly shouted. Bolin turned to look at her, and she flushed red. "I mean, please don't go. I had a nightmare. That was the noise you heard." She began fiddling with her bedspread to avoid meeting Bolin's concerned stare.

To her surprise, Bolin walked inside her room, and sat down in the large armchair she had placed next to her bookshelf to create a reading nook. He scooted the chair right next to her bed.

"You know, right after our parents died, Mako would have nightmares. Even though I was only six, I figured out pretty quickly that the best thing I could do was just be there, and listen if he felt like talking. So do you want to talk about it?" Bolin looked at Jinora earnestly, and she nodded.

Taking a deep breath, she wondered how to explain. Should she go into intense detail, or just summarize. Finally, she spoke up. "It was Amon. He'd captured me again, but this time he took my bending away." Jinora noticed the sour expression Bolin made when she mentioned Amon, and remembered that he would have been captured as well if Korra hadn't rescued him.

Bolin turned toward her. "Amon is gone, Jinora. But even if some other crazy dude shows up to take his place, I promise I'll fight my hardest to keep you...and your family safe." Jinora looked up at him in surprise. Was this determined man the same goofy Bolin that had walked into her room a few minutes ago?

They were quiet for a while, until Jinora mumbled, "Bolin?"

"Yeah?"

"You know what scares me the most about Amon?"

"No, what?"

"The fact that he can make people hate me over something I have no control over." Jinora said, making Bolin remember that even though she was incredibly smart and a talented airbender, Jinora was still just a scared kid.

Bolin reached out and grabbed her hand. "As long as I'm here, no one will ever capture you. And I don't plan on leaving." He saw Jinora smile and close her eyes. Within a few minutes, she had fallen back asleep, still clutching Bolin's huge hand in her small one. Bolin didn't want to wake her up, so he got as comfortable as he could in the chair while his eyes slid closed almost of their own accord. Soon, his grunting snores joined Jinora's heavy breathing as the two of them slept.

Tenzin woke up and did the first thing he did every day. He kissed his wife and children (except Jinora, who had been acting odd lately and insisted on sleeping in her own bed, even though Tenzin knew she had been having trouble sleeping), glad to see that they had made it through the night. The incident with Amon had made him a little paranoid about their safety.

After getting dressed into his airbender robes and making sure his beard looked right, he went to go wake up Jinora and Korra for their weekly meditation. He figured they were older than Ikki and Meelo and needed to start intensifying their training.

He approached Jinora's room first, because he was worried that she might've had another nightmare. He carefully cracked open the door and noticed that there were two sleeping forms in the room. One of them was his daughter, but the other was definitely male.

"PEMA!"

Bolin woke up immediately and took and earthbending stance, a habit left over from his days on the street with Mako. Angry yelling back then almost always meant a fight, so Bolin had trained himself to be ready to defend his brother. Now though, it was just Tenzin, and he was turning a chalky white color. He heard Jinora move sleepily next to him and realized he was only wearing his pajamas. Putting two and two together, Bolin realized exactly what this looking like and began turning a truly impressive shade of maroon. He tried to explain himself, but he could barely stutter out a word.

By this time, Jinora had registered the scene and nearly flown out of bed. "Hello, Daddy," she said, as if this was a completely normal morning for her. "I had a nightmare last night, and Bolin here heard me yell and came to check on me. I was still feeling kind of scared, so I asked him to stay. I guess it was so late that we both just fell asleep. Right, Bolin?" Jinora said, shooting him a look that simply said, a_gree if you want to live_.

Bolin nodded, watching Tenzin struggle for words. Finally, the color began to return to Tenzin face and he said, "Very well. But Jinora, no boys in your room at night from now on, got that?" Jinora nodded seriously at her father, who was now glaring at Bolin.

The door across the hall cracked open slightly, and the upper half of Korra poked out. She was wearing a baggy white tank top to sleep in. "What's going on out here?" Korra asked, her eyes flicking from Bolin, to Jinora, and finally to Tenzin. Her eyes widened, and she soon focused directly on Bolin.

Bolin stared back at her, and then looked more closely at her choice of sleepwear. "Hey, isn't that Ma-," was as far as he got before a voice from the inside of Korra's bedroom interrupted him.

"Korra?" Mako called out sleepily. He had clearly just woken up. "What are you doing? Is that Bolin?" Korra and Tenzin stared at each other, Tenzin returning to the pale color he had adopted earlier while Korra face was bright red, and her mouth was gaping open. She slammed the door shut, but everyone outside could hear the words she said next.

"Mako, put some pants on. Also, we should probably climb through that window and start running."

Jinora put a delicate hand over her mouth as she and Bolin watched Tenzin turn on his heel. He was probably planning to chase the Avatar all over Air Temple Island so he could scold her for her behavior. Jinora made sure that her father was long gone before she started laughing. Bolin joined her, because even though it still stung a little that Korra had picked Mako over him, what had happened was pretty funny.

They were still laughing when Pema showed up. She was holding Rohan, and she seemed exhausted. "What's going on?" she mumbled sleepily. Then she noticed that Jinora, who had been so afraid and upset since the incident with Amon, was laughing. Clutching Rohan closer to her chest, she gave Bolin a knowing look before turning around to go back to bed.


End file.
